The Importance of Hardware Transform & Lighting

[agoodfella]

How important is it exactly?

I've browsed through several of the other threads dealing with "minimal system requirements", "will it run on my computer", etc. and there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer here, specifically:

- If all other minimal requirements are satisfied (except for T&L), will it actually run?
- Is it dependent on which graphics chip you have? (i.e. it might run if you have [XYZ] chip)
- Is it dependent on other factors (i.e. if you have XXX amount of RAM it might, etc.)

Does anyone have any experience here that can provide insight?

Basically, will it run if everything checks out but T&L?

 

[Bast]

Your last question is what I want to know too.

Because I'm in the same situation. I might install the game and see how (if) it runs and then make necessary changes to my computer.

 

[Meleager]

I imagine having T&L is more important then having CPU speed. You computer simply wont be able to show the graphics without it. Don't worry, most graphics cards have it nowadays.

 

[agoodfella]

Don't worry, most graphics cards have it nowadays.

...i guess i should worry, cause mine doesn't?

 

[Meleager]

...i guess i should worry, cause mine doesn't?

In that case worry like the sky is falling.

What graphics card do you have? Do you know?

 

[warpstorm]

T&L has been a common feature since the GeForce ages ago.

 

[agoodfella]

i've got two notebooks:

IBM Thinkpad (ATI rage 32MB)
Sony VAIO TR (Intel 855GM Extreme Graphics 2 Integrated Graphics 64MB)

 

[agoodfella]

duplicate post...

 

[Meleager]

i've got two notebooks:

IBM Thinkpad (ATI rage 32MB)
Sony VAIO TR (Intel 855GM Extreme Graphics 2 Integrated Graphics 64MB)

There not very good graphics cards but I believe they both have T&L. You might want to check out this too: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=130087

 

[agoodfella]

yeah, i've tested it and it passes everything BUT the T&L requirement...

hence this post.

 

[Meleager]

Ok. Yes just double checked.

Your going to need to update your graphics. Sorry.

 

[Rexflex]

GPU technology such as Hardware Transform & Lighting provide far more grunt for graphics processing than even top of the line CPUs can make up for. Maybe you could do without it, but I expect that it would involve turning the graphics settings in the game right down to minimum (if they have settings that will allow it).

 

[agoodfella]

i was told there was no way to upgrade graphics on laptops...

 

[dannyevilcat]

i was told there was no way to upgrade graphics on laptops...

There isn't.

About T&L, a quick google tells me that it transfers all the 3D information to the video card to calculate and perform. That information can be performed by the processor on most games, but if it's a specific requirement, it probably won't run at all.

 

[FenrysWulf]

My computer also supposedly doesn't have transform and lighting, and it's only a year and a half old. If this feature has been on there "forever" then I don't know why I don't have it. I didn't buy this computer with games in mind, but as I said, less than two years old.

 

[Meleager]

My computer also supposedly doesn't have transform and lighting, and it's only a year and a half old. If this feature has been on there "forever" then I don't know why I don't have it. I didn't buy this computer with games in mind, but as I said, less than two years old.

No one said it had been around "forever".

Could be you are using onboard graphics.

 

[Rayanth]

This is sort of 50/50 -- if you ahve a good enough processor and decent memory, your computer can fake T&L by doing software T&L.. it's extra load on the processer, rather than shifting some load to the video card. However, some games can check and specifically require that you have Hardware T&L.

If the game does not specifically check for T&L, chances are you can run it even without T&L, by emulation as I mentioned. I would think Firaxis was smart enough to realize that some people are perfectly fine with emulated T&L, and not require it (but most certainly recommend it).

 

[Vraslosken]

I have a question. The test says that i don't meet the requirements for the videocard, but when they list down the requirements inside the video card section, i meet all three of them. (32 MB - yes, 3D acceleration - yes, T&L - yes.) Does this mean my videocard is good enough. Perhaps the test didn't recognise my Video Card name, but recognised its components. Heck, i didn't even know my computer had a Video Card, though every computer have one.

I also failed on the RAM bit, I have 190. Does this mean the game will not run on my computer?

 

[Strejf]

I just want to say that there is software that can workaround the problem of not having a T&L graphics card. Just google it.

 

[invoke41]

DirectX architecture works like this: there are certain features which are supported by each DirectX version (say T&L, pixel shader, pixel shader 2.0 etc)

Now each feature which is not backed up by the graphics card hardware will run, but it will be emulated in software. So in case of missing hardware T&L, the processor will have to do all the work on the 3d models.

(In case anyones wondering, T&L is when the software can upload a model to the 3d card and let the hardware do all manipulations on it)

So will it run? Yes it will. But as the processor is doing more stuff, this will result in less frames per second to be generated. 25 FPS is the absolute minimum in order to play 3d without jolting.

If your processor is minimum spec as well, you can expect it to behave like a slideshow instead of a game. However if you have a decent processor, say 2 GHz + then it will be able to compensate.